LANSING,
MI – Lansing City Councilwoman A'Lynne Robinson failed to pay her taxes twice
in the last year, city and county records indicate.

Multiple
emails to Robinson seeking comment were not returned.

According
to city property tax records, Robinson failed to pay her winter 2011 property
taxes, due Dec. 1, 2011.

On
March 1, 2012, the $464.63 bill was turned over to Ingham County Treasurer Eric
Schertzing's office for collection. County records show the bill was paid in
mid-April of this year.

Robinson
was then late on her summer 2012 taxes, due Aug. 31. That bill, for $1,932.91,
was paid Wednesday. The city treasurer said a 3 percent penalty is assessed on
summer taxes that aren't paid by the due date.

According
to a report in the Lansing State Journal, Robinson said the delinquent taxes
were the result of a miscommunication between her mortgage lender and the city
treasurer's office.

Both
city and county officials said that Robinson would not have received notices of
her delinquency because it is the taxpayer's responsibility to keep track of
their tax status.

"We
do not send out delinquent notices. On every tax bill the due dates are
indicated," a representative of the city treasurer's office said. "It is the
responsibility of the homeowner to ensure taxes are paid."

County
treasurer Schertzing said he issues three notices on the first year a taxpayer
is in default.

The county sends its first collection notice in June, he said, and
Robinson paid her delinquent taxes in mid-April.

Like the city treasurer Schertzing said it was the property owner's responsibility to keep track of
payments.

Neither the city nor the county treasurer would speculate on the
reason for the two missed payments.

City
treasurer Antonia Kraus said Robinson's mortgage company collects the tax
payments and consolidates them for payment to the city.

"I
checked several tax years and it is the same mortgage processor," Kraus said in
an email.

The
company made timely payments up until the last two tax cycles.

Kraus
said she didn't know what caused the two delinquencies, but that the problem
was not on the city's end.

"This
is not an issue between the Treasurer's office and her mortgage company but a
communication issue between the mortgage company and their processor," she said
in an email.